| Author |
Improving Ship Roles (Basic Idea) |
Banshee
Grand Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: August 28, 2001
Posts: 2181
From: Philadelphia, PA
|  Posted: 2005-03-31 06:12
First off.. Id like to admit this idea is borrowed from Eve online.
I was sitting in the lobby today, just randomly thinking about DS Fleet Battles and Eve Fleet Battles, when something struck me.
In DS, it is possible for an overwhelming number of ships of any kind to win any fight. But to try do the same in Eve, would lead to an enourmous defeat.
Then in some sort of strange way my mind works, I started to compare the Warp Scramblers in Eve to the Interdictors here in DS and it got me thinking.
Whats one of the most useless ships in DS?
Frigates ofcourse, which, on the opposite end of the spectrum in Eve, or a Battleships worst nightmare when combined with a couple of heavy damage dealers.
This led me to thinking about a way to possibly make frigates somewhat more useful in DS, and I ended up with the idea of Eve Interceptors.
So what does this have to do with DS and Interdictors you ask? Oh.. you didnt? well tough, gonna tell you anyway.
What if we keep the Planetary Interdictor fields as they are (Same principle as Eve mobile warp disruptors, albeit on planets, not at stargates) But made a change to the Shipbourne Interdictors.
Rather than having a permanent field that constantly surrounds the ship within a 1000gu radius (Using unbelievable amounts of power that a cruiser should never have), Turn it into a device that can be fitted into a EW slot on a given ship, that you specifically target a hostile with.
Scenario - 2 Dreads are chasing a Cruiser, they arent going to catch him, and they wont be able to point jump him before he exits the planetary Interdiction Field.
A Dread pilot shouts for a 'Tackler'. A frigate warps in on the hostile cruiser, targets him, and activates his Interdictor on him (Clicks the enemy Icon, and use's a hotfix number or key to activate the device) preventing the enemy cruiser from escaping.
You have successfully held down the enemy cruiser, without the carefree jump and sit of a complete field.
So whats the difference? Frigates are good for their speed, so why not put that speed to use?
The Device itself would remain the same in that 1/ It will draw power, but at a reduced amount, still meaning if the pilot of the targetted ship is aware enough, he/she can still escape. 2/ It will still have a 1000gu range but will ONLY affected the Targetted ship that the EW Slot was activated on.
Why do it? Personally I say,
1/ It gives frigates a real purpose
2/ It add's a degree of skill and concentration needed to hold a target in place
3/ Its a whole new aspect to have to watch out for
Take a sensor frigate for example, some will argue that it has too many EW Slots.. well yes this is true, it could dictor you, run a reactor and 4 ECM. Presents a single ship with a problem doesnt it? Yes.. but the game isnt supposed to be about single ships. Your Dread might be caught up, but whats to stop your wingman rushing into the frigate and causing massive damage forcing them to bail from the tackle?
Plenty of EW Slots, Sod all Offence/Defence.
Then possibly you could add in natural resistance to the Inderdictor devices based on the ships size and class.
As I have stated many times, the idea that a Cruiser could prevent litterally tens of thousands of Dreads from jumping if they were within the active radius is absurd, The power drain everytime one of those Dreads tried to Jump would be immense, Hell multiple ships trying to warp within rapid succession should cause the device to implode, taking out the cruiser and anything near it. But, this isnt the case.
So, for example - (Using the targetable interdictors, not planetary fields)
Scouts/Frigates/Destroyers - 1 Device activated to hold them.
Cruisers - 2 Devices activated to hold them.
Dreads - 3 Devices activated to hold them.
Stations - Jumpdrive, 5 Devices, Wormhole, Unstoppable.
This also encourages fleet diversity in that, told hold a target several frigates would need to be active, Cruisers would be required to fend off enemy frigates, and to protect their own against hostile cruisers, and Dreads there to provide the heavy hitting firesupport and the killing blows.
One thing I did think that might be a problem was the Kluth Cloak, Get Dictored, just Cloak and Jump out... Then i remembered the time delay on the new cloaking Devices, and that ceased to be a problem.
Anyways, thats the basic outline of the Idea, and ways it would work. Although im pretty sure I may have missed something, as it was a lot to type down, and undoubtedly something was omitted somewhere.
Any comments, further Ideas or Suggestions are welcomed fully. 
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DarkOutlaw-S|S-
Grand Admiral
Joined: April 10, 2003
Posts: 63
| Posted: 2005-03-31 15:27
I think its a great idea, hence it give's a role for players.
But wont it be a problem if their were not enough players on?
=MGO=
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-03-31 22:00
/me liketh. Needs a bit of work (ie, can only be active for 30 seconds give or take), but its good Pete .
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Banshee
Grand Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: August 28, 2001
Posts: 2181
From: Philadelphia, PA
| Posted: 2005-04-01 04:34
Player shortages could be a problem yeah, but odds are, if your low on people, you dont want to force an enemy ship to stick around on the chance that his buddies decide to have a go at you, so as happens now, you'd adjust your plans to hit and run, or a sneak attack, something along those lines.
Jack.. A timer would be an Idea, but it goe's to the principle of the Interdictor again, it doesnt have a limit as such, only in that the ships energy could run out, which to me seems perfectly feasible to keep.
Frigates have a small energy grid than cruisers, so that shouldnt be too much of a problem, especially if the frigate is having to move around at high speed to dodge incoming fire.
You could argue I suppose that it wouldnt be fair on a single guy roaming around without a care in the world as to what is going on (Often the case with myself), but then again we circle back round to the whole Team/Fleet based gameplay.
That lone pilot shouldnt be there all alone in the first place, If he got held down and killed.. well, live and learn.
But yeah.. I do think some sort of restriction should be placed, like for example the natural resistances, or possibly as you said a timer, but it a different function, perhaps working the same way the Jumpdrives do.
Target the enemy, activate the Device, runs down a set timer (Adjustable by ship size perhaps like JD Fuel Consumption/Speed?) then deactivates and must recharge before it can be employed again.
If we return to Eve once more, there is no such cycle, kill your target, activate again without delay on next, Killing with impunity. So let DS get it right first time round.
Again this was just a random idea that popped into my head, but I have to admit I do like it (For once). So as Major and Backy have done, please, give feedback, ask questions, make suggestions etc
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Dwarden
Admiral
CHIMERA
Joined: June 07, 2001
Posts: 1072
From: Czech Republic
| Posted: 2005-04-01 08:43
i like the idea
(static Interdictor field ship (cruiser/some mega station) can stay too ... no need remove)
just add additional device / weapon with this parameters (again can be multiple levels ) ...
and also some 'low effective' anti device (e.g. for destroyers haha )
[ This Message was edited by: Dwarden on 2005-04-01 08:44 ]
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Rinzler
Vice Admiral
Joined: January 15, 2005
Posts: 13
| Posted: 2005-04-02 05:05
I like It..
but we cant even name our ships (like in EvE).. dont you think this might take 2 weeks(tm) or longer to implement?
who knows by the time DS gets going again ( crosses fingers ) maybe EvE will figure out how to do ship vs ship combat more like DS..
man we would all be really torn then wouldnt we..
too bad Faus dont work for EvE.. 
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